I've been a business journalist specializing in the retail industry for over a decade, covering consumer news, company profiles and industry analysis pieces, as well as the intersection of business news and shopping, fashion and social trends.
I was the retail and consumer reporter for AOL Huffington Post Media Group’s DailyFinance, the business and personal finance site, served as a contributing retail reporter for CNBC.com, and wrote for the Your Money section of The New York Daily News.
Prior to that, I was the longtime senior retail editor for Home Furnishings News magazine, then a Fairchild/Conde Nast publication.

Here's What Happens If Uniqlo's Parent Company Buys J. Crew

Cropped pants with cool ditsy prints and luxury/edgy tops start to quickly dot retail stores around the globe; a Japanese retailer with a yearning to conquer the U.S. market the way the GapGap did 45 years ago can instantly claim America’s most talented merchant CEO one of its own.

Fast Retailing’s potential acquisition of J. Crew (which is now owned by private equity firms TPG Capital, L.P. and Leonard Green & Partners, L.P.) will accelerate international expansion for the leader in preppy-with-an-attitude glamour, which has been lusting over overseas markets and currently operates stores in countries such as Canada and the U.K., with plans to open in Hong Kong.

Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing is said to be in talks to purchase J. Crew. (Photo Credit: Uniqlo)

The acquisition would grant J. Crew “a base to expand worldwide” that they haven’t had thus far, Gilbert Harrison, founder and chairman of boutique investment for Financo, told Forbes.

And no question that Uniqlo would gain big time from the deal.

The retailer, known for its utilitarian, affordable clothing tricked out with performance features like its exclusive Heattech heat-retaining and moisture-resistant technology, has been unabashed about its goals for the U.S. market.

In 2011, Shin Odake, then president of Uniqlo USA, told me the retailer wanted to “revolutionize” mass retailing in the U.S. With a mere 17 stores now stateside, it’s set a goal of 200 stores by 2020.

To that end, the retailer has been beefing up its American ranks recently.

Drexler would complement Meyer’s operational, supply chain acumen by bringing his garmento savvy to Uniqlo – that is if he chose to take on Uniqlo’s merchandising.

Drexler put J. Crew (and the Gap before it) on the style map with his eye for fashion and feel for consumer tastes.

Should the retailers come under the same company umbrella, “Drexler gets to continue to play in his J. Crew sandbox, or, Drexler gets to reprise his Gap role on the larger Fast Retailing/Uniqlo platform,” Mark Cohen, professor of marketing in the retailing studies department of Columbia University’s business school, and former CEO of Bradlees and Sears Canada, told Forbes.

In turn, Uniqlo would get to “acquire much more North America merchandising savvy.”

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